Bicyclist killed in Boston crash was Worcester Academy grad

At Worcester Academy, former student Christopher Weigl was remembered yesterday by stunned teachers and administrators as a young man with talent, intellect, maturity and, most of all, huge potential.

But just five years after he graduated from the private school in 2007, that potential ended tragically yesterday morning in a fatal bicycle accident with a truck near Boston University, where Mr. Weigl was a graduate student in the College of Communications.

“He would have done amazing things, I think,” said Ronald M. Cino, Worcester Academy head of school. “Chris stood out to me as a quiet, good natured, sensitive and very sharp kid from a great family.”

Mr. Weigl, 23, of Southboro, was studying photojournalism as a graduate student at BU.

In September and October, he worked two weddings with a professional photographer from Grafton whom he had met last year through her daughter.

“I'm the professional photographer, and I was learning from him. He was more technically savvy than me, and we had a great time working together,” Mary Dennis said. “It was like working with a peer with him. He's my daughter's age, but he took things really seriously with his photography. It's still sinking in. I can't believe it.”

In addition to being an aspiring news photographer, Mr. Weigl was an outdoorsman, an Eagle Scout, and an accomplished clarinetist. He played in Worcester Academy's jazz combo as well as in the MetroWest Symphony, said Worcester Academy music teacher Alan Vaudreuil of Spencer.

“He was wonderful at helping the younger students come along. He was always doing things to make the people around him better. That was the main thing about Chris,” Mr. Vaudreuil said. “He was somebody who found value in everything he did and was always willing to try new things, to stretch himself in new directions.”

For a young man, Mr. Weigl had traveled extensively in Europe and the Far East, always documenting his experiences visually on his photography website. On that site, he described his passion for storytelling.

“From the wedding day to a simple human interest story, the capture of emotion in a split-second is a truly powerful, almost magical, ability,” he wrote. “Photojournalism is a ticket to curiosity, a way to explore the world, meet people doing interesting things and share their work with others.”

The Boston globe reported yesterday that Mr. Weigl wrote his own obituary as a class assignment. In it he wrote that ''he cemented his love for photojournalism'' during a trip to southeast Asia after graduation from Skidmore College when he did a story about the government takeover of a Cambodian island

Boston police said Mr. Weigl was riding his bicycle on Commonwealth Avenue near the university when he collided with a tractor-trailer that was making a turn about 8:30 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident near the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and St. Paul Street.

The truck driver remained at the location and was cooperating with the investigation, police said.